Ragnarok 2 : Looking Forward

Greetings Heroes,

Since you have stumbled upon this blog entry it probably means you are interested in knowing what is coming down the pipeline for Ragnarok 2 in the next few months; which I’m happy to share with you. 1st a bit of history, our WarpPortal Ragnarok 2 started its official service on May 1st, 2013 since then we have added Daily Union quests for level 50 characters, new raids and of course the PVP colosseum and PVP armors. Now for the future!

• Starting in Late June we have released the newest Raid “Culvert of Abyss” to challenge teams of 10 to acquire the newest Tier 2 Raid Gear Sets.
• Also soon, Game starter packs at discounted prices will be released on Steam. Those packages consist of items that are also available in the game shop normally, The discount on Steam puts those 1 time bundles in price parity with what WarpPortal players enjoy already due to the bonus Shop points the WP players get when transferring from WP -> Kafra cash. Of course we understand that WP players also want those Packages so we are working on doing those packages on the WP as well, which will be a later update this summer.
• July 10 is the big day when we intend on releasing WoE on our live servers under test conditions! Test conditions means we will have multiple WoE per day and per week to help find out where the rough spots in WoE performance are and find the best time for our community. We will be hosting many WoE related events, which will be posted on the Ragnarok 2 Website by Tuesday July 2nd, at this time as well to help give you that extra incentive to get into WoE and mix it up!
• July 31 we are working on releasing the Monster DNA update, more commonly known as the Pet Update here in the office. Collect DNA from monsters, mix them, grow them and make your own summonable companion to join you on your journey!

From here the dates start to get fuzzy because we may need to push forward or back depending on how things are going with the testing.

• Tier 3 Raid: Abaddon of Despair will come sometime in late August Early September
• The Noel update will come in September, which we know so many have been looking forward to. The Noel update is a new Race with its own unique class options and starting area. We have quite a bit of work to perform for this update with getting the Voice overs setup for the new NPCs quests and of course the player characters as well.
• Finally in October we have the 2nd WoE update which add an additional castle and new options for WoE. At this time it is still under development so it’s contents are not finalized, but we will share more when more is ready.

Aside from the content updates, which we will continue to push monthly content updates, we will have many events and balance fixes interspresed weekly into Ragnarok 2.
Currently the hotplate of game tweaks and fixes:

• Continued Stability fixes when changing maps to avoid disconnections
• Chat mode being more customizable to make it more readable and functional for your individual usage, this is a big update though because it requires the entire text system in the game to be redone essentially
• Improving the Graphic Rendering, example Anti-aliasing removing foliage blocking camera view etc.
• PVP Class balance, in the long term there will be a huge revamp of class balance i’m sure, but in the short term trying to tweak down the dominance of fast ranged classes in PVP (colosseum specifically). The good news is WoE maps have quests and are open PVP between WoEs, you can earn blood points there as well.
• Game content updates: Ragnarok was designed to present a specific story that would take you rather quickly to level cap. And from there the Unions, Guild activities, Raid, WoE, Monster DNA and general community activities would be the targeted game play activities for those level capped players. However, we also recognize that many want more options prior to level cap to speed up or give a different path of advancement to alt character generation. Part of that puzzle is going to be in-game quest events ,think like holiday themed quest events done somewhat often to splash in “something new, but those do not fill the overall desire we’ve seen from the community. It is a huge undertaking to design even a new map, much less repopulate with new NPCs and a new story arc, and then doing that multiple times. That goal can be a long term goal, but in the mean time we want to talk with our level capped players and find out what sort of speed up ideas would be enticing to them for 2nd 3rd 4th characters etc.

And finally for a game management standpoint we want to continue to bring you fun events and a great game experience. We will be releasing new items in the Kafra Shop that may have great looks and utility to them. Sometimes those items may have an effect that gives a “Buff” to the player. Our promise regarding this and controlling the idea that if you pay = win we will be listening to the community to make sure the buffs are reasonable and that in-game earnable buffs are comparative. An example is the Rune Stat Elixirs, they are designed to be sold, but we are working on a hybrid plan with the development team so that the purchased ones are just an instant easy way to acquire them, but an in-game no payment method will exist as well so we can help keep the in-game player to player power balanced.

No MMO has ever launched that has all the content it ever will have, it is a long term adventure where more is added so that 5 years down the road the game is many times bigger and deeper than when it began, help us shape that world with your ideas and support. Please understand that these plans are just plans and are very subject to change.

Sincerely the Ragnarok 2 Production Team